The Ice Queen's Arrival
Baekseol #3 As usual, news reached Ruby, who was lounging on the bed in what had once been the bishop’s quarters—now, properly, the pope’s chambers.
“Y-Your Holiness the Pope! Th-there’s an incredibly beautiful woman heading straight for the church right now!!”
Huh? Since when did one pretty woman showing up at church warrant this much fuss? Ruby tilted her head, puzzled, when Serafina, who had been lounging nearby, suddenly shot to her feet.
“Security’s improved lately, but a beauty in Belnoa? We don’t know what might happen. I’ll go check it out.”
The report, originally meant only for the pope, had naturally reached Serafina as well, since she had been holed up in Ruby’s room.
“Oh no, Sister! That’s not it at all!! The guards, the slum dwellers—everyone’s completely entranced and trailing after her like lost puppies!!”
The priest, apparently assuming Serafina had every right to hear the news, began reporting to her directly.
I’m… the pope, right?
Still, all those men following a beauty… It felt oddly familiar.
Serafina narrowed her eyes at Ruby’s faintly flushed face.
“Ruby. Is there something you’re not telling me?”
“!! N-no! I’m just… curious. I was wondering how beautiful she must be for people to follow her like that……”
Serafina’s lips curved into a sly smile as she approached.
“Oh my, our Ruby. Are you feeling threatened because someone prettier than you has appeared?”
“Th-that’s not it!!”
There was no way Ruby—who had been a man in her past life—would feel jealous of a pretty girl. If anything, more beauties around would be… perfectly fine, right?
“Hehe. Don’t worry. No one could possibly be prettier than our Ruby. After all, you were personally chosen by God.”
“……”
Having received her divine power and Stigma purely for her appearance, Ruby ducked her head in embarrassment.
“Aww, look at you staring at the floor because you’re shy. How adorable.”
Before Ruby knew it, Serafina had closed the distance and cupped her cheeks with both hands.
Zap—
Ruby immediately lifted her head and shot Serafina a sharp glare. How dare she treat the empire’s supreme authority, the pope, like a baby!
Take this—
“Hyaa—?!”
When Ruby rebelliously stroked Serafina’s snow-white ear, the latter yelped and stumbled backward, clutching her now-crimson ear. Her wide, rabbit-like eyes were rather cute.
“……”
Watching that expression, a mischievous urge stirred in Ruby. Without thinking, she took a step toward Serafina.
……Lips.
People had thresholds for stimulation. The problem was that the same stimulus never satisfied that threshold for long. Perhaps that was why Ruby, who moments ago had been content merely staring at Serafina’s flushed ear, now found her gaze drifting to her lips.
What would those cherry-red, plump lips feel like…?
As Ruby slowly approached, Serafina sat frozen on the floor, eyes squeezed shut, breath coming in ragged gasps.
Just as Ruby’s hand was about to touch those trembling lips—
“I-I’ll go! I’ll head outside and scout who she is!!”
Serafina sprang up like a coiled spring and bolted out the door as if fleeing for her life.
“…Huh?”
Ruby’s hand, now with nowhere to go, simply hovered in the empty air.
Ever since her past life, Ruby had been good at giving up. She had never received the ordinary birthday gifts others got, so she rarely felt disappointment. When something slipped away, she would simply think, It wasn’t meant to be, and move on. Yet now, faced with the lips she had just missed, Ruby felt regret for the very first time.
Why am I like this? Was it because I wanted to taste cherries…? Right. Dessert tonight is definitely cherries. No question.
Meanwhile, contrary to her expectations, Baekseol found the complete lack of commotion rather strange. The guards who should have drawn their swords and called her a heretic upon seeing her, and the rough men from the slums, merely drooled and trailed after her in a daze.
Have humans these days forgotten the existence of witches?
Well, it made sense. Unlike the other witches, Baekseol, who cared only for beauty, had intended to remain in her Ice Castle for life no matter what happened. Of course, she hadn’t expected someone more beautiful than herself to appear and force her to move.
Still, had all the other witches been hunted down?
Honestly, those crazy women deserved to be hunted.
But they couldn’t possibly have fallen to these weak imperial fools. Even Baekseol herself had once casually wiped out an elite imperial force that had invaded long ago—with a single flick of her finger.
Moreover, even now, a quick glance around showed that the empire’s standards had fallen far below what they once were. Their appearances included.
Baekseol’s assessment was only half correct.
The empire’s true powerhouses had been dispatched to dungeons and disaster zones across the land, which explained why the remaining forces seemed weak. However, the decline in the citizens’ appearances was entirely Baekseol’s fault.
In the past, the empire had gathered every individual with strong holy power from across the nation to subjugate the Ice Witch Baekseol. Armed with holy swords and legendary sacred relics, no one had even considered the possibility of failure.
But the result had been disastrous. Those elite soldiers had been annihilated in an instant by a single gesture from Baekseol.
And here lay the most terrible tragedy.
A hidden setting of this world that only Ruby knew: the absolute formula that holy power = beauty. Indeed, by sending the empire’s strongest holy power users to their deaths…!
In the end, only ordinary or unattractive people remained in this barren imperial land.
Serafina’s extraordinary holy power, and the fact that the man who had once sat on the papal throne had aged into nothing more than an ugly old man, were all butterfly effects caused by Baekseol.
Though Baekseol wanted nothing more than to freeze these ugly insects trailing after her, she restrained herself to uphold her elegant principle of never killing unless first attacked.
A queen must always carry at least one conviction in her heart.
Just as she was leading the bothersome insects into the heart of the slums, a rather beautiful nun appeared and blocked Baekseol’s path.
Oh-ho.
Her appearance was on a similar level to Baekseol’s own. Yet something felt vaguely lacking.
The base material was excellent, but her rustic nun’s habit showed no effort to enhance her looks. Moreover, the menacing aura radiating from her was enough to make one forget she was a woman.
“My, so the rumors were true.”
Serafina spoke with her arms crossed, her tone sharp.
“What rumors, little one?”
“You really are leading men around by the nose. And it doesn’t look like you’re using any magic either…”
Serafina narrowed her eyes and examined Baekseol. Surprisingly, she detected no trace of illusion or magic on her body. The only thing she sensed was a strangely familiar holy power emanating from the ornate mirror in her hand.
“Goodness. Why would I need to use such magic? Anyone who sees this perfect face naturally follows me—it’s as inevitable as breathing.”
Pfft. Serafina let out a disbelieving laugh at the shamelessly confident attitude.
“Well, you’re decent-looking, sure. But not so pretty that you could charm every man in the world, I’d say.”
No. Baekseol’s beauty had reached a realm beyond human. But to Serafina, who saw Ruby’s god-crafted appearance every single day, it felt… slightly lacking.
“……What? Ha, haha! Ahahahaha!!”
Receiving an evaluation of her appearance for the first time in centuries, Baekseol burst into mad laughter, clutching her stomach. With each peal of laughter, the surrounding temperature dropped and the ground trembled.
“A pretty child like you certainly has the right to judge. But the fact that you don’t even bother to enhance such looks means you’ve never been in love before, have you…?”
At those words, Serafina’s mind flashed to Ruby.
R-Ruby is my little sister, though…
Yet despite her thoughts, her face began to redden.
“Oh my. That bright red face tells me you do have someone you love…?”
“N-no, I don’t!! She’s practically my little sister!!”
Baekseol’s interest was piqued by Serafina’s visibly flustered reaction. To think someone with such immense beauty and power still hadn’t claimed her target. Just how charming must that person be?
“Shall I help you win that love?”
“Wh-what are you saying… I told you, she’s my sister.”
Serafina, who had wavered for a moment, averted her gaze and snapped back. Baekseol licked her red lips and smiled dangerously.
“Is that so? If you truly don’t need my help… then I suppose it’s fine if I seduce her myself?”
“……!!”
In that instant, Serafina’s heart plummeted. She wanted nothing more than to twist the neck of the woman who had uttered such filthy words, but she had no justification. As the priest had said, no magic or curse had been used—people were simply entranced by her beauty, which wasn’t a crime. So she could only force out a single sentence.
“Ab-absolutely not!!”
The moment she shouted, Baekseol had already closed the distance. Her cold, long fingers brushed against Serafina’s cheek, as if they might freeze even her heart.
“If you simply put in the effort to adorn yourself, you could win love as well. Do you truly dislike the idea…? Even if it isn’t me, someone as charming as that will surely have countless people aiming for them.”
Serafina had always believed Ruby would never fall for anyone else, but looking around, Camilla and Sua were always hovering nearby—and now this dazzling woman was being added to the mix…
Serafina began to feel uneasy.
Though she hated to admit it, purely in terms of looks, this woman seemed far more compatible with Ruby than she was. If this woman set her mind to seduction, that fragile, innocent Ruby might easily be swept away.
Of course, the side of Ruby that only Serafina saw was rather domineering and authoritative, but…
In the end, Serafina nodded.
“……Please help me.”
Serafina, who had once hurled insults at the pope himself, was now speaking respectfully. If the former pope had witnessed this from the afterlife, he would have collapsed from high blood pressure.
For the record, Baekseol genuinely just wanted to make Serafina look prettier. No matter how beautiful Serafina’s base appearance was, in the eyes of the narcissist Baekseol, no one could surpass her own beauty.
Thus, after being beautified by Baekseol, Serafina entered the church together with her.
Of course, the men who had followed Baekseol had long since been dealt with by a single punch from the highly irritable Serafina.